NICK CAIN
READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK
THE touchline row between Steve Borthwick and Pat Lam in the clash between Leicester and Bristol at Welford Road last weekend was a savage indictment of the Premiership in terms of professional standards.
It was the sort of incident that makes elite Rugby Union in England look like an incompetent laughing stock compared to most professional sports. This time the fault-line was game-management rather than bogus promotion and relegation regulations, or broken salary caps, but it was yet another glaring example of how not to run a pro sport.
A match which was on a knife-edge, with Bristol defending a 26-23 lead as Leicester laid siege with a series of five metre scrums, descended into a slapstick farce as Leicester head coach Borthwick became incensed by a front row replacement intervention by his Bristol counterpart Lam.
The bad blood started with an 82 minute yellow-card for Bristol's replacement tighthead, Nahuel Tetaz-Chaparro, after the Bristol front row had conceded a number of consecutive scrum penalties for collapsing. With the Argentinian prop in the bin the focus shifted to the Bristol bench, where their starting tighthead, John Afoa, was seated after being substituted at half-time.
The referee, Ian Tempest, asked the Bristol team manager – who is responsible for marking the team card to show whether a substitution is tactical or due to injury – whether Afoa was fit to go back on the pitch. Tempest's words were: “He's on the card as tactical. Can he come back on and scrummage?”
By this time, Borthwick had already come down from the stands to the touchline, and soon afterwards Lam also appeared pitchside. The reason why neither of them should have been allowed to leave their tactical boxes in the stands then became painfully apparent.
Lam said immediately that Afoa was injured, and made the serious error of trying to pressurise referee Tempest, saying: “I never take John Afoa off after 40 minutes – if he gets injured it's your responsibility.”
However, because the injury is listed as tactical, Tempest asks twice if Afoa is injured, and Lam says, “yes”, both times. The referee outlines that Bristol will lose an additional player under the laws because the yellow card has forced an uncontested scrum, leaving them with 13 players, of whom eight must be in the scrum.
Lam initially appears to accept this, but moments later, he has a rapid change of mind and with the words, “he's fine”, says that Afoa can go back on the field. By this time, with the coaches only a couple of metres from each other on the overcrowded touchline, an agitated Borthwick is shouting: “He's just said he's injured! Pat, don't lie. Don't lie. You're lying.”
Lam replies: “I'm not lying, Steve,” but as Afoa trots onto the pitch an exasperated Borthwick yells at Tempest: “He's lying!”
The fiasco takes five minutes before the last act of the game which ends in Bristol's favour when Afoa utilises the experience he has gleaned as a 38-cap All Black to get the nudge on Ellis Genge, and as the Leicester loosehead tries to respond the scrum veers inwards towards the hookers.
“Cut bench to five replacements and make all substitutions injury only”
As Leicester's blindside flanker Hanro Liebenberg follows the scrum as it skews inwards, the ball is left sitting in a widening gap between him and No.8 Jesper Wiese. The match officials rule the ball is out and Bristol scrum-half Andy Uren reacts fastest to scoop it up and kick to touch.
The touchline fracas that follows is in danger of igniting into a fist fight, especially when Genge and Bristol No.8 Nathan Hughes smash into the hoardings.
By now Borthwick and Lam are back in their coaching boxes in the stands – which is where they should always have been.
The protocol around replacements should be watertight. When a player comes off it is up to the the head coaches to inform the team manager to enter on the replacements' card whether it is due to injury or tactical. That decision should then be nonnegotiable, changed only from tactical to medical, or vice versa, following further examination by a club doctor.
What should not be allowed is for coaches to start interfering in the process by stationing themselves on the touchline.
Ian Tempest handled a difficult situation well. He maintained an objective stance, and eventually ensured that Afoa's card entry of tactical was followed, rather than Lam's initial attempt to change it.
The referee's only error was letting Borthwick and Lam get involved in the first place. They should have been told to leave the touchline straightaway and get back in their boxes.
The only plus side of embarrassing episodes like this is that it might force World Rugby into a long overdue radical reform of the replacement regulations.
A much better format for the game's welfare is to cut the bench to five replacements – three front row forwards and two utilities – and to make all substitutions injury only.
